[Satellite TODAY 02-05-13] Liberty Global is in negotiations to buy United Kingdom-based cable and mobile operator Virgin Media. According to research firm Ovum, this could be the most important deal in the country’s telecom and media sector since T-Mobile and Orange UK merged in 2010.
 

   The research firm has indicated that the deal would create a stronger competition between John Malone and Rupert Murdoch in the U.K. as they battle for subscribers primarily in their companies broadband, fixed voice and pay-TV services. Ovum also forecasts some potential collateral damage for other telcos in the country caused by the deal and the competition between the two media moguls.

   “Malone will bring the operational smarts from cable operations in 13 markets, multi-territory leverage with the major studios and sports federations, plus its recently launched Horizon next generation pay-TV and multi-screen platform, now rolling out across its European operations. But it will be facing off against a jewel in the Murdoch empire. BSkyB, by any measurement is one of the best-run pay-TV operations on the planet, with a strong technology platform strategy, some powerful content rights, including exclusive rights to the entire HBO catalogue, control of the Premiership coverage wholesale market, and exclusivity on the output of all of the majors in the First Subscription Pay-TV Window,” said Adrian Drury, principal analyst at Ovum. “Plus, also note that the UK is a must win market for two major disruptive SVOD players, Amazon’s Lovefilm and Netflix. If Malone closes the deal, this will be a very interesting competition to watch and real test for the Liberty vision of the future of cable TV and internet services.”